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Harley Street is a street inMarylebone,Central London, named afterEdward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.[1] Since the 19th century it has housed a large number of privatespecialists inmedicine andsurgery.[2]
Since the 19th century, the number of doctors, hospitals, and medical organisations in and around Harley Street has greatly increased. Records show that there were around 20 doctors in 1860, 80 by 1900, and almost 200 by 1914. When theNational Health Service was established in 1948, there were around 1,500. Today, there are more than 3,000 people employed in the Harley Street area, in clinics, medical and paramedical practices, and hospitals.
The nearestLondon Underground stations areRegent's Park,Great Portland Street andOxford Circus.[citation needed]
Harley Street is part of theHoward de Walden Estate.
Many famous people have lived or practised in Harley Street, including the Victorian Prime MinisterWilliam Ewart Gladstone, the artistJ. M. W. Turner, and the speech therapistLionel Logue.Queen's College, founded in 1848 and one of the oldest girls' schools in England, is situated on Harley Street.
InJane Austen'sSense and Sensibility (1813), the Dashwood sisters, Lucy Steele, Mrs Jennings, Edward Ferrars, and others spend some of their free time there while in London.
InElizabeth Gaskell'sNorth and South (Gaskell novel) (1854-55), Margaret Hale lived with her aunt Mrs. Shaw and cousin Edith in a house on Harley Street for nine years, before she moved with her parents to the fictional northern town of Milton.
InVirginia Woolf'sMrs. Dalloway (1925), medical professional Sir William Bradshaw lives on Harley Street.
P.G. Wodehouse's Sir Roderick Glossop, the “nerve specialist", was said to maintain a practice on Harley Street.
Dr. Janet of Harley Street is a novel about a woman doctor published in 1894 by Dr.Arabella Kenealy.
InJekyll & Hyde (musical), Dr. Jekyll gives a calling card that says he lives on 46 Harley Street.
InAgatha Christie’sThe Secret of Chimneys (1925), Lord Caterham ruefully mentions that his doctor advised him to “avoid all worry. So easy for a man sitting in his consulting room in Harley Street to say that.” Earlier in the book, a surgeon in Harley Street is mentioned among names listed in a phone book. Agatha Christie'sDeath in the Clouds (1935), ‘’The Hollow’’ (1946), andAnd Then There Were None (1939) include characters who are Harley Street physicians. In Agatha Christie'sCrooked House (1949), Edith de Haviland visits Harley Street. In Agatha Christie'sThe Big Four (1927), Hastings mentions Harley Street.
In Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" (1898), the wealthy uncle at the beginning of the work apparently has a house on Harley Street.
In the movieThe Revenge of Frankenstein, Dr Victor Frankenstein aka Dr Franck after his brain transplant begins his medical practice on Harley Street W.
InJohn Banville'sThe Untouchable,[14] Victor Maskell visits his doctor and is told "I should have thought you had died already, in a way." ... which is "not the kind of thing you expect to hear from a Harley Street consultant, is it."
InEoin Colfer's novelArtemis Fowl and the Eternity Code, the title character rents a cryogenic pod from a facility off Harley Street.
InDownton Abbey (2011), a fictional obstetrician with a practice on Harley Street Sir Philip Tapsell is hired by Lord Grantham to deliver the baby of his daughter Lady Sybil. When another physician Dr. Clarkson notices signs of preeclampsia, Sir Tapsell and Lord Grantham ignore his warnings and suggestion to perform a Caesarean section. When Lady Sybil dies of eclampsia, Lady Grantham blames her husband for valuing Sir Philip Tapsell's reputation over Dr. Clarkson warnings stating, "And you believed him, when Dr. Clarkson knew Sybil's history and he did not. You believed Tapsell, because he's knighted and fashionable and has a practice in Harley Street. You let all that nonsense weight against saving our daughter's life!"
InHilary Mantel's short storyHarley Street (2014), from her bundleThe Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, features the street and its many doctors offering services to rich clientele, to the backdrop of a vampire story. Each of the doctors have been given funny names to represent their expertise. "When the doctors scuffed in and out, I could hear their Lobbs scraping the carpets. I could hear Gland's wheezing and puffing; the snarls of her patients, and the sobs of the patients of Smear, as he pushed in with his cold speculum, while Mrs Bathurst stood by. I heard the whine and grind of Snapper's drill, and the chink of steel instruments against steel dishes."
InRichard Osman'sThe Bullet That Missed (2022): "Now the door opens, and Fiona Clemence pops her head around it. That auburn hair, so famous from the shampoo adverts, the full smile, so famous from the toothpaste adverts, and the cheekbones honed by genetics and Harley Street."
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